Alternatively, in the languages I speak:

Welche Sprachen sprechen Sie? (Deutsch/German)

¿Qué idiomas habla usted? (Español/Spanish)

Quelle langue parlez-vous? (Français/French)

EDIT: These sentences are now up to date.

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    3 months ago

    ein Bißchen Deutsch

    BTW, this should be written as:

    ein bisschen Deutsch

    We switched from ß to ss in all words with a preceding short vowel in 1996: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_der_deutschen_Rechtschreibung_von_1996
    So, it’s “Fuß” and “Maß”, because those are pronounced with a long vowel, but then “Fass” and “muss” and “Biss”, because those are pronounced with a short vowel.

    And in this case, “bisschen” is spelled with a small “b” for reasons that I’m not entirely sure are logical. 😅
    It would be spelled with a capital letter, if “Bisschen” was a unit of measurement here (i.e. a small bite), like a “Liter” is.
    But because it was used so much and without really referring to a specific measurement, it eventually began being spelled lowercase, similar to “wenig” or “etwas” (“ein wenig Deutsch”, “etwas Deutsch”). Apparently, this kind of word is called an “Indefinitpronomen”.

    https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/bisschen
    vs.
    https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bisschen (much rarer)

    • spizzat2@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 months ago

      Thanks! It’s surprisingly difficult to get Germans to correct me on things. Most of them are just happy that I can speak it at all, so they tell me not to worry about the little stuff. 😂